ABSTRACT

Rapid urbanization and industrialization over Greater Cairo Region (GCR), Egypt, have resulted in sharp land cover changes. Urban change not only impacts on land cover but also on urban climate. Detailed studies on the effect of urbanization and industrialization processes on climatic elements in GCR have been performed in this study. Five different districts were selected to represent rural, suburban, urban and industrial areas in GCR. The data of monthly mean values of minimum, maximum and mean temperatures, wind speed, relative humidity, cloud amount and rainfall amounts for the period (1990–2010) were used. The results revealed that, for each district, whenever urbanization and/or industrialization increase, the values of minimum, maximum and mean temperatures increase while the values of wind speed, relative humidity, cloud amount and rainfall amounts decrease. The effects of industrialization processes on the climatic elements were found stronger than the effects of urbanization processes. The greatest urban–rural climatic differences were found to be 5.9, 3.1, 3.9 °C, 3.6 kt, 13.9%, 1.1 octas and 7.0 mm for the minimum, maximum and mean temperatures, wind speed, relative humidity, cloud amount and rainfall amounts, respectively, while the greatest industrial–rural climatic differences were found to be 6.7, 4.3, 4.4 °C, 4.4 kt, 17.6%, 1.7 octas and 8.0 mm for the minimum, maximum and mean temperatures, wind speed, relative humidity, cloud amount and rainfall amounts, respectively.